(HAARETZ).Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will seek to extend an informal agreement reached between his predecessor Ehud Olmert and the George W. Bush
administration on the issue of West Bank settlement construction, and use it
as the basis for negotiations with the Barack Obama government in
Washington.
The Olmert-Bush agreement was reached ahead of the 2007 Annapolis conference
between Israel, the Palestinians and the United States, according to a
senior Israel official. Netanyahu was briefed in recent weeks on various
aspects of the understanding, some of them recorded, others reached
verbally.
"The understandings Olmert reached contain clauses that are good for Israel,
and can certainly form a basis for understandings with the Obama
administration," the official said, adding that the Bush government never
agreed formally to the Israeli proposal, but in practice adhered to its
guidelines and refrained from significant criticism of new settlement
projects that met the criteria outlined in the agreement.
The understanding is an extension of a similar undocumented pact reached
during the tenure of Olmert's predecessor, Ariel Sharon, and divides West
Bank construction projects into four categories - those involving Jerusalem,
settlements in major blocs, isolated settlements outside the blocs and
unauthorized outposts. Regarding Jerusalem, Israel refused to accept any
limitations whatsoever on developing Jewish neighborhoods in the city's
eastern neighborhoods. On settlements in the major blocs (such as Ma'aleh
Adumim), construction would be allowed even beyond the existing borders, as
long as it remained in close proximity to the community itself ("No farther
than two hills from houses at the settlement's edge," according to the
official.)
In isolated settlements outside the major blocs, building will be allowed
only within the existing construction boundaries, beyond which communities
will not be permitted to develop. Unauthorized outposts, according to the
agreement, must be evacuated.
In addition, Israel promised not to erect any new settlements, not to
expropriate Palestinian land for settlement construction, and not to issue
government incentives for settling communities beyond the Green Line, all
promises made during the Sharon administration.
